Photo: Mel with Secretary of State for Health Sajid Javid.
Healthcare in Central Devon
One of my missions as an MP has been to preserve and improve local healthcare provision. I have fought for greater access to outpatient services at our hospitals and health centres, worked closely with communities to retain GP provision when it has been at risk, and as a treasury minister in 2018 helped to deliver the largest ever cash increase for our NHS. The increase, an additional £20 billion a year in real terms by 2023-24, means that total departmental spending for health and social care will have increased in real terms (above inflation) by 40% since the Conservatives came into Government in 2010. Additional funding to tackle Covid-19 has been on top of this.
The huge increase in funding for health and social care since 2010 has been necessary because of rising demands on our NHS. More people are living longer and new drugs and treatments mean more people can survive illnesses and conditions they previously wouldn’t but the necessary care is often substantial. Huge sums of money are being spent on tackling obesity-related health problems and there has been a hugely positive revolution in how we approach mental health problems, with more money than ever before allocated to helping those who need help.
This additional investment, while vital, is not sufficient on its own to deliver the long-term sustainable improvements that are needed to reduce waiting lists and maintain the high quality services we expect. We spent about 3% of our GDP on health in 1960 but now spend more than 10%. There is a limit to how much further this can rise given the other significant spending pressures that exist (such as education and defence).
So we need the NHS to become more efficient by making better use of new technology and by ensuring different departments communicate with each other more effectively. I also remain particularly concerned about missed appointments (around 1 in 20 patients fail to turn up without warning), which costs the NHS a billion pounds a year (enough for 257,000 hip replacements or 990,000 cataract operations).
While there is no magic wand to immediately fix all of these problems, last week a landmark piece of legislation, the Health and Care Bill, became law. The act includes:
- A crackdown on needless bureaucracy so staff can get on with their jobs.
- Better data sharing between health and social care services
- Action to remove barriers in the hospital discharge process.
- New regulations on unhealthy food and drink advertising.
- Greater transparency on spending allocated for mental health support.
The Act will also deliver:
- Better training for NHS and social care staff for dealing with autistic patients.
- Stronger safeguards for women and girls by banning the harmful practices of virginity testing and hymenoplasty.
- A new Health Services Safety Investigations Body to examine incidents that have implications for patient safety.
- New regulations for non-surgical cosmetic procedures.